"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is NO VICE... moderation in the pursuit of justice is NO VIRTUE."

Thursday, February 14, 2008

DECONSTRUCTING BOB

Self-confessed former and often radical lefty, and who isn't in one's formative wonder bread years just off the dirt farm, Sean Cumyn, is writing a book on the political and moral themes found in the work of Bob Dylan. He also runs a remarkably understated website called Right Wing Bob. Here in the Weekly Standard is a thoroughly enjoyable article penned by Cumyn. A little taste of what is surely to follow. Hacks and hatchet men on the Left are already complaining that colonial patriot and First Citizen, Tom Paine has been co-opted by the Right. And I'm sure the same reactionary outcry will be hoisted when Dylan is revealed to be of solid mind firmly set in the quintessential moral values of timeless conservatism as opposed to those often impenetrable and oscillating birth pangs of the impetuous Left.

Mr. Cumyn writes:

A good deal of hoopla greeted the grizzled rock-musician Neil Young's musical assault on George W. Bush earlier this year. His album Living With War included a hundred-voice choir singing a song entitled "Let's Impeach the President." For those survivors of anti-Vietnam war protests, and their younger would-be imitators, it was a moment for a sharp intake of breath and the tantalizing hope that maybe now, after all, music really could change the world. I mean, everyone has to sit up and take notice of Neil Young, right?

Young's crusading album included another song called "Flags of Freedom," in which he gave a name-check to Bob Dylan, and adapted the melody of Dylan's own somewhat more lyrically complex song "Chimes of Freedom."

He really should have known better. In an interview several months later with Edna Gundersen in USA Today, Dylan was asked about the absence of any song about the current war on his own latest album, Modern Times.

"Didn't Neil Young do that?" he jokes . . . "What's funny about the Neil record, when I heard 'Let's Impeach the President,' I thought it was something old that had been lying around. I said, 'That's crazy, he's doing a song about Clinton?'"

With his sly and somewhat wicked response, Dylan had (1) desperately frustrated the considerable number of more obvious Dylan fans who have been waiting on the edge of a cliff for him to say or sing somethinganything!against President Bush and the Iraq war and (2) told Neil Young none-too-subtly that he found his recent ultrapolitical songwriting essentially pointless.

Somehow, after over 40 years of evidence to the contrary, much of the world seems to continue to expect the man who is arguably America's greatest songwriter to sign on to left/liberal causes at the first opportunity. If nothing else, it is proof that in attempting to kidnap Dylan's songs (in Dylan's own words, his songs were "subverted into polemics" in the 1960s), the left succeeded in convincing the average person that both the work and the man did, indeed, belong to them.

In the summer run-up to the 2004 presidential campaign, a concert tour of anti-Bush musicians was being organized, led by Bruce Springsteen. They would perform in swing states in support of John Kerry. The advance press regarding the tour always prominently mentioned Bob Dylan as one of the musicians being talked about for the lineup. There was no surprise about this expressed in the stories; after all, campaigning against Republican presidents is what Bob Dylan has always done, isn't it? But when dates and lineups were finally announced for the "Vote for Change" tour, one name was prominently missing: that of Bob Dylan.

And indeed, any scrutiny of the record would show that he has never endorsed a political candidate (although some political candidates have endorsed him). The closest he has ever come would be the statement in his memoir, Chronicles, that his "favorite politician" circa 1961 was Barry Goldwater.

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Name:Gabriel Thy

Location:United States

Report: Four score and seven (or a few million years) agoan idea
of freedom took root in this American soil. Knowing life is crisis, punctuated by brief periods of solace,
we also know that after all is said and done, we shall never cheat infinity, nor extinguish the mark of a
single thought. Like this mathematical pun, strong and fiercely sought, we engage this nation, its myths,
its memories, its magnanimous messengers, and its monstrosities as we seek a more perfect union. But
as always in America, we must rebuke an enemy with both fists on the wheel driving for success and justice
for all. An enemy that is always changing is an enemy that never changes. We must engage that enemy on
the ancient battleground where art and politics beat each other up and few are they who seem the wiser.
We must reject roving wild-eyed policy now weakening our nation, to live again as one nation under truth,
both as strategy, and as reality on the ground, certain of the age in which we struggle and from which we
must engage the enemies that threaten our existence as a nation of liberty. A vigorous new morality must
replace the old farces found frothing along the same profane beachheads as those which defiled the hopes
of our ancestors. In renouncing our petty grievances must all stand together as one to rebuke our mortal
and spiritual enemies who care not for our struggles, and even less for our feelings. We are at war, people.